


The Lights Went Out!

by TeddyBearDoctors



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Paranormal Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11866398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeddyBearDoctors/pseuds/TeddyBearDoctors
Summary: Frank makes a paranormal club at school after watching too much supernatural and ropes all his friends into breaking into a haunted house. Gerard is a witch, Hayley really wants to believe in ghosts, and Patrick doesn't believe in ghosts. I swear he doesn't!





	The Lights Went Out!

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my folders and decided to post it cause why not, it's kinda cute

If there is one thing Patrick doesn’t believe in its ghosts, and if there is one thing all his friends believe in its ghosts. Frank, of course, only believes because he recently binge watched the good seasons of Supernatural and now carries salt in his pockets and is afraid of mirrors, which led him to start a paranormal club at their school and since Gerard joined Patrick had to-he can’t say no to those eyes. Gerard has always believed, he carries crystals around for protection and texts Patrick late at night to pick things up from the store for his spells, he’s an amateur witch and even though Patrick finds that interesting he can’t force himself to believe in these things. He still wears the necklace Gerard got him though, the witch claiming it will keep him safe and bring luck, so far it’s only gotten Patrick into weird conversations with strangers and compliments from a group of girls with colourful hair, but then again he isn’t dead so maybe it is protecting him. Guess he’ll never really now. Hayley is different, she wants to believe. She’s the red-orange haired girl who’s easily excited and screams at horror movies, she’s fun and sweet and she wants to believe more than anything in the world.

The club meets during lunch in a math room whose teacher only has morning classes so she’s not around. They usually watch shitty youtube videos on Frank’s phone and listen to him talk like he knows everything about ghosts but it's all stuff he picked up from Supernatural and Ghost Hunters. Patrick watches Gerard correct him and everyone is amused and Hayley listens and absorbs the information like a willing sponge. But today is different, today Frank has plans and a map.

“We can’t break in!” Patrick argues and Frank rolls his eyes.

“It’s only breaking in if we break something.”

“That’s not how the law works, Frank, that’s like saying it’s only a crime if you get caught.” Patrick replies and Frank frowns.

“Don’t be like that Patty, it’ll be fun!”

Gerard puts his head in his hands, elbows on the table, and smiles in amusement at Patrick. He may not believe in ghosts but he believes in the stars and Gerard is celestial, hair red like a supernova, a smile so bright it’s cosmic, eyes beautiful like something undiscovered by humans.  And his laugh? Oh, Gerard’s laugh makes Patrick swear he’s listening to the twinkle of the stars and the turn of the Earth, impossible and yanking on his imagination.

“He’ll go if you stop calling him ‘Patty’.” Gerard replies when Patrick fails to speak. Gerard smirks to cover his smile as Patrick blushes and starts nodding.

“Deal!” Frank announces and Gerard leans back in his chair, looking smug and amused. Patrick lets his bangs fall in his face and pretends he’s checking texts.

\--

As it turns out they do end up breaking in, even to Frank’s standards, because Frank can’t pick a lock so Hayley has to break a window and climb inside to unlock the door. It’s an old house a few hours away that Frank found on a list of haunted houses over the weekend. Hayley is bouncing around, excited even beyond Frank, and they both start babbling about these crazy ideas about what they’ll see before Gerard interrupts and hands everyone a flashlight.

“Meet back in an hour to see if we can summon anything or communicate.” He explains and Frank gets yanked towards the back rooms by Hayley.

“Upstairs?” Gerard offers and Patrick nods. They find a bedroom and Gerard falls down on the bed, puff of dust filling the air and decorating Gerard’s cherry hair. Patrick starts to laugh but a loud noise from somewhere else in the house has him screaming instead, turning an annoyed shade of red when Gerard laughs back at him. “Thought you didn’t believe in ghosts?”

“I don’t,” He pouts. And it’s true, he doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be afraid of them, right?

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Gerard tells him sweetly and Patrick rolls his eyes but can’t stop himself from smiling.

Patrick sees Gerard watching him, lounging on the bed like he’s waiting for Patrick to join him, so he busies himself with looking through drawers. He finds some old books and pictures before he joins Gerard, sitting nervously on the edge and dropping the objects between them. Why is he so nervous? It’s Gerard, the D&D playing nerd who still thinks people say ‘rad’ unironically. Patrick watches Gerard’s hands as he looks at the pictures and flips through the books, the crystal around his neck falls out of his shirt, hanging by a frayed string and glinting in the light of their flashlights.

“Should have brought your camera, ‘Trick.” Gerard comments, not looking up from the back of a book covered in dust.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been staring at me, should have brought your camera so you could just take pictures of me.” He’s smiling, teasing, and Patrick burns hot and quickly looks down at his hands twisting in the unused covers.  “I don’t mind, I stare at you even more.” His head shoots up just in time to catch Gerard looking back down, soft smile on his face.

What is happening?

“Come on,” Gerard pockets something and then he’s up and leaving the room, Patrick rushing to keep up.

“So what are you gonna use in the spell?” Patrick asks as they drag their lights across walls and oversized pictures hanging along hallways.

“Amaranth, when the flowers are dried they can be used to call the dead.” He explains and Patrick listens. “And some Calendula,” he says and then corrects it to marigold so Patrick will know what he’s talking about, “it’s used to communicate with supernatural beings. Along with some other stuff.”

“How you remember all this stuff and know how to use it is amazing to me.” Patrick breathes softly and Gerard pinches his hip.

“Almost as amazing as you are.”

“What is with you today?” He laughs and Gerard shrugs.

“You look cute today, can’t help myself.”

He turns a corner before Patrick can reply and when he follows he runs right into the other boy. Patrick stumbles and then notes that Gerard is staring down a dark hallway and he struggles to see what he is looking at. Creepy, it doesn’t look like anything is there.

“What is it?”

“I saw something,” Gerard answers carefully and Patrick rolls his eyes playfully.

“What? A ghost?”

“Maybe,” He glances over at Patrick and they both just stare for a moment too long. “Scared?”

“Maybe,” Gerard holds out his hand and Patrick takes it without hesitation, both boys taking slow steps down the hallway with their hands locked tightly.

When they do get around to casting a spell Frank and Hayley are bouncing up and down going on and on about how sure they are that ghosts are in the house. Patrick is sitting with his legs crossed just watching them, amused. Gerard is kneeling, a bowl before him on top of a painted pentagram-“it’s used for protection, Patrick, not evil.”-and a bunch of plants are gathered in a pile. Gerard recites something loud enough for everyone to hear but none of them understand it; most of his spells are in different languages, especially dead ones. He adds the plants one by one and then pulls a picture out of his pocket that Patrick remembers from upstairs, he tosses it in and then gets out a match and sets everything ablaze making Patrick jump back a smidge.

It takes a moment but then the lights-well, what few were on in this room-all go out and they collectively gasp, Patrick swears he hears whispering despite the fact that they’re all dead silent. Patrick almost screams when he feels someone touch him but quickly realizes it’s Gerard taking his hand, holding tight as they all wait in fear they’ll later deny was ever there. It’s Hayley who turns on her flashlight first and as she casts it around the room everyone starts to relax, noting that no one new is with them. The lights don’t come back on and Frank starts throwing salt into the dark as Gerard packs everything away and the group makes its way outside.

Outside is almost as dark, the moon casting light enough to see, but somehow it feels safer, if only a bit, and the boys don’t let go of each other’s hands. Hayley is talking a mile a minute and Frank looks like he might cry.

“So ghosts are real!” She laughs and Patrick raises a brow.

“What makes you say that?”

“The lights went out,” She explains and Patrick shakes his head.

“The house is old, the electricity probably finally went out. Maybe a rat ate through a wire.”

“Right when Gerard finished his magic thing?” Gerard goes to correct her but she keeps talking. “I don’t think so, Patrick, it was totally a ghost!”

“Okay,” He lets her believe, and when Gerard catches his gaze and smiles, Patrick finds he believes in something new after all.

Just not ghosts. Probably.

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best work, could do with a rewrite, but like it's cute right? whatever


End file.
